Quebrachitol (L-Quebrachitol), i.e. L-inositol methyl ether, whose English chemical name is 2-O-methyl-L-(−)-chiro-inositol, is a natural optically active inositol widely presented in plants. It has been proved that quebrachitol plays an important role of “delivering intra-cell information” and “controlling growth process of cells” in living organism metabolism. As a chiral structure unit, quebrachitol can be easily converted into various inositol derivatives widely used in biology and medicine fields. Therefore, quebrachitol has gained much attention from biochemistry, pharmacology and medicine experts.
Quebrachitol was firstly discovered in quebracho of South America, and later, such component was also discovered in plants such as Maple, Allophylus edulis, Mitrephora vulpine, Hemp, Eleagnus formosana and so on. Although many plants contain quebrachitol, its content is generally relatively low. Hevea brasiliensis is a plant rich in quebrachitol and the content of quebrachitol in it occupies about 0.2%-1.2% by weight of the rubber latex, and thus it is currently a quebrachitol source with the highest industrialization value.
Natural rubbers are widely planted in tropical and subtropical regions. After development of several decades, a well mature industry system has been formed, and its industrial production has also become stable. The industrial production of natural rubber industry can only be further increased by making great efforts in developing comprehensive utilization of natural rubber by-products. Undoubtedly, it is an important approach to extract quebrachitol from natural rubber industry waste water. Natural rubber factories produce a large amount of industrial waste water each year, and serum, when discharged as waste water, does not only pollute environment, but also wastes resources. Scientists make continuous study on extraction of quebrachitol, and file related patents. However, the extraction scale is always limited to laboratory stage, and it is hard to perform scale production. Moreover, high cost also restricts the search and application of quebrachitol. Therefore, there is a need for a technology process for industrialized extraction of quebrachitol at a low cost.